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University of Louisville

public university in Kentucky

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ1317143 ↗
Source-derived summary

The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19th century one of the first city-funded public colleges in the United States. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General Assembly to be a "Preeminent Metropolitan Research University".

Louisville is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The University of Louisville School of Medicine is touted for the first fully self-contained artificial heart transplant surgery, as well as the first successful hand transplantation in the United States. The University Hospital is also credited with the first civilian ambulance, the nation's first accident services, now known as an emergency department (ED), and one of the first blood banks in the US.

University of Louisville is known for its Cardinals athletics programs. Since 2005, the Cardinals have made appearances in the NCAA Division I men's basketball Final Four in 2005, 2012, and 2013 (vacated); football Bowl Championship Series Orange Bowl in 2007 and Sugar Bowl in 2013; the College Baseball World Series 2007, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2025; the women's basketball Final Four in 2009 (runner-up), 2013 (runner-up), 2018 (national semi-final), and 2022 (national semi-final); and the men's soccer national championship game in 2010. The Louisville Cardinals Women's Volleyball program has three-peated as champions of the Big East Tournament (2008, 2009, 2010), were Atlantic Coast Conference Champions in 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021, and 2022, and made appearances in the NCAA Division I women's volleyball Final Four in 2021 and the national championship in 2022 and 2024. Women's track and field program has won Outdoor Big East titles in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and an Indoor Big East title in 2011.

Editorial summary

“University of Louisville” enters the record as public university in Kentucky. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what University, Louisville and public can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1798, 2005, 2012, 2013—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1798. Its strongest next move is a source search built around University, Louisville and public.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“University of Louisville” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, University, Louisville and public provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1317143. VIAF identifies the subject as 157940193. The Library of Congress control number is n82024982. Authority coordinates are 38.215, -85.760. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1798, 2005, 2012 and 2013.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “University of Louisville”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow University of Louisville primary sources, University of Louisville archive and University research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “University of Louisville”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “University of Louisville” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.